Qin Ziwen took out the two Cards he received as a reward.
The first was a blank card, and the second was a thin, gray metal card.
They felt completely different. The former was smooth and warm like jade, while the latter had the frosted texture of metal and was engraved with the image of a beast cage.
The former was the Blank Expansion Card, with a standard "(Micro)" designation written after its name.
Once he held them, he understood the uses of both Cards.
The first Card could be used in any area of his Home. Upon activation, it would expand the chosen area, creating a 10x10m extended space. This space was similar to the Level 1 Cellar Grain Storage—a pocket dimension that wouldn't affect the apartment's external appearance.
The latter required selecting a 4x5m rectangular area. Activating it would create a beast cage for raising animals within that space.
Qin Ziwen looked at the Card in front of him. His apartment originally had only 98 square meters of interior space—the area recognized by the Home system.
After using the Blank Expansion Card (Micro), the area would instantly jump from 98 square meters to 198, turning it into a massive single-floor apartment.
'If I could get a few more Blank Expansion Cards, couldn't I build a "building within a building," or even a city within a building?'
After a moment's thought, Qin Ziwen decided to use the Blank Expansion Card in the bathroom.
The new beast cage would definitely have to be placed in the expanded area. If he were to raise livestock in it in the future, the smell would be overwhelming, so putting it near a bedroom was not an option.
His family's apartment was a three-bedroom, one-living-room, one-kitchen, and one-bathroom layout.
He lived in the master bedroom, his brother in the secondary bedroom, and there was also a guest room—the same one Wang Xiaoli had hidden in earlier.
With the water and electricity out, the bathroom had become little more than a decoration. Qin Ziwen opened the bathroom door and chose to use the Card at the far end, by the window.
A flash of light.
A large, empty area instantly extended from the far end of the bathroom, and the original bathroom window vanished.
Almost simultaneously, from the outside, the fifth-floor bathroom window of Building 8 in the Gated Community was "erased" from existence, leaving only the tiled exterior wall.
"Amazing."
Qin Ziwen marveled. With the wall where the window used to be as the new boundary, a vast stretch of grayish-white land had appeared.
The ground was hard rock, with no soil or plants. It looked as if a piece had been cut from an immense boulder and embedded here.
The sky showed no moon, but the light intensity, temperature, and humidity within the expanded area were identical to the outside world.
The ceiling and the boundaries of the expanded area were shrouded in a gray mist that was impossible to touch, like an invisible wall.
The height was similar to his own apartment, still 2.8 meters from floor to ceiling.
Even so, witnessing it with his own eyes, Qin Ziwen couldn't help but be amazed.
He selected a 4x5 rectangular patch of ground near the left side and used the Level 1 Beast Cage Card.
The Card dissolved into light that enveloped the designated area.
When the light faded, a huge wire cage stood in its place. The four corners of the cage were anchored to the ground with thick wooden posts, and its interior was divided into several smaller sections by wire mesh.
It also contained feeding and water troughs.
He summoned the little orb of light from his Home, and text appeared on the white screen.
[Home] Building 8, Unit 2, Apartment 5-2
[Area] 198m²
[Height] 2.8m
[Structures] Level 1 Cellar Grain Storage, Level 1 Beast Cage
Qin Ziwen called his brother over.
When Qin Ziwu opened the bathroom door, he was dumbfounded by what he saw behind it.
Qin Ziwu stared at the scene in shock. "Bro, what is this?"
Qin Ziwen said with a straight face, "I couldn't sleep last night, so I dug it out."
Qin Ziwu rolled his eyes. "Yeah, right. I believe you. I totally believe you. Fine, I won't ask you anymore."
'However, Qin Ziwu had his own theory. This must be the mysterious power of the Cards Big Bro was talking about. I bet it dropped when we hunted that crocodile today.'
Qin Ziwen smiled. He knew his brother's personality well, having grown up with him. Besides, a change this massive was impossible to hide.
Qin Ziwen said, "Next time we catch some voles, we can raise them in the cage. We'll just need to feed them some plant roots or small insects every day. If we can get a male and a female pair, it probably won't be long before we have a whole litter of them. Then we'll have meat to eat every day."
"I don't know about voles, but hamsters have terrifying breeding capabilities. I had a roommate in college who kept two hamsters, a male and a female. He kept them in a cage, and in less than a month, they had a litter of over a dozen babies."
"Then, less than a month later, the female had another litter. He asked around and found out that hamsters can go into heat again on the same day they give birth. Those things can breed all year round."
Hearing this, Qin Ziwu grew even more excited. The breeding ability of hamsters was that terrifying; he figured the voles' couldn't be much worse.
For Qin Ziwen, however, securing a stable source of meat by raising animals was a secondary goal. His main purpose was the daily settlement score.
Based on his deductions, the act of raising livestock should also count as a bonus for the daily settlement.
It wasn't every day he could hunt a crocodile, nor was it every day he'd run into someone like Xie Jun.
Getting a score as high as today's wouldn't be so easy in the future.
Remembering he had to smoke the meat tomorrow, he knew he needed to prepare tonight. Qin Ziwen went to the kitchen, cut the crocodile meat into long, thin strips, and then rubbed salt and pepper onto the surface of each strip to cure it.
"Bro, let me help you with the meat."
The two brothers worked for an hour and finally finished processing all eighty-eight pounds of crocodile meat. Thankfully, yesterday's settlement reward had included three one-pound bags of salt; otherwise, they wouldn't have had enough.
「Early the next morning, just as the sky was beginning to brighten.」
Qin Ziwen packed the cured meat into a bag and met up with Old Deng's family.
As they were heading downstairs, he noticed Old Deng's wife frequently glancing at him. Qin Ziwen couldn't help but ask, "Is something wrong, Mrs. Deng? Do I have something on my face?"
Xiao Meixue quickly shook her head. "It's nothing."
Deng Guang said, "She's probably still thinking about last night."
He glanced at his wife. After decades of marriage, how could he not know her personality? He explained on Qin Ziwen's behalf, "If you ask me, you can't blame Brother Qin for any of this. Cancers like the Xie Brothers should have been dealt with sooner. And we're lucky to have them. If the Xie Brothers had targeted anyone else in our building unit, who knows what kind of trouble would have broken out."
Xiao Meixue shot him a glare. "I wasn't saying anything. I'm just curious. You two... wasn't it your first time doing something like that? Weren't you scared?"
Qin Ziwen gave a nonchalant smile. "Scared? Of course I was scared. I was terrified at the time. But when someone is bullying you right to your face, you can't just cower, can you?"
'Qin Ziwu tried hard to recall. Did Big Bro even look scared at all?'
'He couldn't quite remember.'
Deng Wen asked curiously, "What's going on?"
Xiao Meixue said, "It's nothing. Grown-ups are talking, kids shouldn't interrupt."
Deng Wen scoffed and lifted her chin. "Someone died, that's all. What's so secretive about it? I'm seventeen. Do you really still think I'm a little kid?"
Xiao Meixue was furious, but Deng Guang cut her off. "Alright, if Xiaowen knows, she knows. Kids these days are exposed to a lot more than we were. She's a young woman now."
Deng Wen muttered under her breath, "There was so much commotion last night. I was already asleep, but it woke me up. I knew something big had happened!"
She didn't seem repulsed by the fact that Qin Ziwen had killed someone; on the contrary, she seemed a little star-struck. He was way cooler than all the "Jiahaos" at her school.
As they exited through the south entrance, Qin Ziwen glanced over at the spot where they had dumped the bodies last night.
His brow furrowed. The two corpses were gone, vanished into thin air. Two grown men, just gone.
He walked over, stepping on the overgrown weeds.
Crouching down to inspect the area, he found drag marks and crushed vegetation, along with a faint trail of blood.